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Caduceus
Kadoukeusu |Debut = Game: Strider 2 |Gender = Unknown (possibly male) |Affiliation = Grandmaster Meio |Hit Points= 3 HP (arm joints) |Score = 200.000 PTS 5000 PTS (arm joints) }} Interstellar Traveling Organism Caduceus ( )Capcom (February 22, 2014). Strider Hiryu Visual Chronicle (Japanese). Pg. 47 is a boss character from Strider 2, serving as the game's final boss. The largest artifical lifeform created by Grandmaster MeioStaff (June 2000). "Strider Hiryu 2: Setting Document (Part 2)" (Japanese). Monthly Arcadia (06). Pg. 181., Caduceus is a massive and powerful bio-organic weapon. Called the Path to the Stars ( ) by MeioCapcom (December 1999, Arcade). Strider Hiryu 2 (Japanese). Stage 5 Epilogue, Caduceus was created to serve as a vehicle to transport the seeds of Meio's artifical lifeforms throughout the galaxy, in their search of a new planet to restart his experiments anew. Caduceus is a giant creature with a body vaguely shaped like a marine lifeform such as a manta ray or jellyfish, with several tentacle-like appendages hanging at its sides and a "head" in the form of a circular fiery orb with two long bone-like flexible "claws" at each side. Extending from its back is a large appendage or "tail" with a total length of 72.000 km, large enough to wrap all around Earth. The tail is made out of several segmented pieces where all the various artificial lifeforms created by Meio are stored. Its two large arms are actually formed by three smaller lifeforms Meio created during his battle with Hiryu: Graveleo (shoulder), Fulmenorca (mid-section) and Ardoravis (tips). Story Strider 2 In spite of being the undisputed ruler of Earth, Grandmaster Meio was displeased by the decadent state of the planet following his revival. Feeling his ambition crumbling away, he decided to leave and start again in another planet somewhere else in space, creating Caduceus to serve as a way to transport all his lifeforms with him. When confronting Hiryu, Grandmaster Meio proclaims he'll destroy the Earth after dealing with him, likely planning on using Caduceus' inmense power to perform the deed. With Meio defeated, he summons Caduceus as a last-ditch effort to eliminate Hiryu. Fighting over the damaged top of the Third Moon, in an area called "The Throne of the New God", Hiryu faces the titanic monster and, finally, defeats it. Caduceus loses its arms and plummets into the Earth below, incinerating during atmospheric re-entry. Meio observes its remains one last time as Hiryu approaches him for the kill. Powers and Abilities Caduceus is a gigantic creature with a large variety of powerful elements under its control. Caduceus can create and manipulate fire, plasma, electricity and gravity at will, creating storms of projectiles or focused attacks and releasing them from either its arms or body. Caduceus' elemental control comes from the six large spheres or "cores" found in each arm, and by attacking them Hiryu can disable some of these attacks, but only temporarily as the cores regenerate after a short time. Caduceus has also access to even more powerful energy-based attacks which are trickier to dodge. Caduceus has a large amount of health and is completely impervious to damage except for its head, where its "Life Core" ( ) is found. The only way Hiryu has to damage it is to climb through its arms while avoiding the barrage of attacks and strike at the core. At first, Caduceus simply uses one attack at a time, but as it loses more health it starts to panic and acts faster and more aggressively by combining two or more attacks together. This makes avoiding its attacks more difficult and forces Hiryu to be in constant movement to avoid receiving damage. Attacks * Plasma Blast: Caduceus aims one of its arms at Hiryu and shoots a large fireball at him. This attack can be temporarily disabled by hitting its generation point. * Electric Bolt: A big lightning bolt is shoot from the middle core in Caduceus' arm, aimed at Hiryu. This attack can be temporarily disabled by hitting its generation point. * Gravity Push: Three yellow gravity rings are generated from the core at the base of Caduceus' arm, pushing Hiryu off them if he's climbing them. It will also do a non-lethal version from both arms before doing the Plasma Rain, to push Hiryu off it before flying up. * Small Flames: Six small flames come out of Caduceus' head, three at each side, and fly upwards. This attack is only dangerous if Hiryu is close to its head. * Plasma Shots: Eight orbs of green plasma, four at each side of the screen, are generated from Caduceus' body appendages. These orbs float in place for a second before turning into homing plasma shots aimed at Hiryu. This attack is only used after Caduceus' health is halved. * Plasma Beam: Caduceus unleashes a massive laser beam from its mouth, straight below him, and then start slowly sweeping either right or left. * Plasma Rain: Caduceus' strongest attack. After damaging the Life Core enough, Caduceus wriggles in pain and flies up, pushing Hiryu off its arms with gravity if necessary, and then flips in mid-air. As it does so, several plasma beams rain down onto the arena. The only way to avoid this attack is to quickly move into the small openings between the beams. Design Notes Early concept art for Caduceus shows its arms were originally simpler spherical cores connected through electricity, rather than the three creatures used by Meio in his boss battle. These three orbs had the same type of attacks used by Caduceus in the final game: the first shot fire plasma blasts, the second released lightning and the third generated a gravity forcefield that pushed Hiryu back. These would later become the 3 artificial lifeforms making up Caduceus' arms, with the cores being adapted into their designs. Most of Caduceus' body design, however, remained unchanged until its final form. Concept art also shows Meio's scrapped "Control Life Core" would have merged with Caduceus' Life Core during the final battle. Gallery Strider2-3.png Caduceus conceptsketch.png|Concept art Caduceus_oldorbs.png|The original design for the elemental cores Caduceus_setting.png|Setting Sketch Caduceus_setting2.png References Category:Characters Category:Bosses